Fantasy Insider: WGC-Workday Championship, Puerto Rico Open

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If you didn’t play PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live last week, it was wild. Six golfers shared the first-round lead, including PGA TOUR non-member Bryson Nimmer. Gather enough entries – there were 3,868 – and you’re bound to have one on board with him as the R1 leader at +10000, and there was! Talk about a chip and a chair… With Jon Rahm and the rest, scoring was diversified nicely, but the curveball on the weekend was that golfers went out in threesomes both days. (In the third round, split tees were used. For the finale, everyone went off No. 1.) So, there were no 2-balls valued at +750 and higher like usual. That didn’t stop our in-house veterans. Rob finished 17th for what was his third straight top 25. He’s connected for a top 25 in half of the 10 events played. Meanwhile, Glass recorded his personal best of 36th place. Still, as he laments below, his hope was for much better. It’s funny how expectations change when you get good at something, but by no means has guessing at golf become easy. Monitoring the interface for when Top 10 and Top 20 bets unlock ultimately can define the experience as fantastic or forgettable. The aggregate impact of logical strategies, educated decisions and a little luck is the backbone to every experience. Heck, even the entry that nailed Nimmer didn’t win the week. Bring all your clubs, because you never know which one will be the right one today. Register for PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live here and monitor Rob’s and Glass’ progress as Influencers. For a broader explanation of the format and FAQs, click here. TOURNAMENT TO WIN Rob … Cameron Young (+4000) First, it’s about time that Glass made me work for it last week. I’ll assume all the credit and give none to the golfers. So, you know, the usual. Turning the attention to the Wells Fargo Championship, this has the makings of a fresh face taking the title. Young already has connected for a trio of podium finishes, including shot-shapers’ stages like Riviera and Harbour Town. He’s also rested since that T3 at the RBC Heritage. Glass … Long Shot Golfer (+Big Odds) As is usually the case in this fantastic format, I’m going fishing before we tee it up. Last week, my buddy, Nate Lashley (+9000), sat three shots off the 54-hole lead and I was dreaming about LOTS OF GOLD COINS. Then I remembered that the World No. 2 was leading, and the dream was short lived. Back to reality, the theory stands up. If the best players entering these tournaments – Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth in the last four weeks alone – there’s no point in holstering the favorite on Wednesday morning. Reach for the stars. Dig deep. Catch lightning in a bottle. Find a genie in a bottle. DO SOMETHING. Speaking of reality, I can’t find a deep shot I love this week so I’m going with Keith Mitchell (+5500), anyway. Not many better off the tee, into the greens and he sits 12th in scoring average. T26 or better in five of his last six on his own ball, including four T13s or better. TOP 10 Rob … Jhonattan Vegas (+580) As my top Sleeper, I already was on board, so this is a natural fit in PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live. In his prime and continued to perform like it at 37 years of age, he pops often enough for top 10s that I was surprised that he was this long at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. His tee-to-green game is anchored by vintage irons that lay the foundation to rank 30th in adjusted scoring. Glass … Sung Kang (+1200) If you didn’t notice, the interface unlocked Top 10 and Top 20 markets more often for the Mexico Open at Vidanta. Assuming it continues, I will roll more dice as the season moves on. If there is a horse for a course over time and across TOURS at the old cattle farm, Kang is hard to argue against this week. Remember, deep dives can be changed daily, so I don’t have to be married to this selection, but his results here speak for themselves. Oh, and don’t look at his recent results on TOUR if you’re looking for supporting evidence as it’s, er, grim. I’m taking a calculated flyer until I crap out! TOP 20 Glass … Matt Wallace (+700) The Zurich Classic of New Orleans broke him out of a horrific, six-event MC streak on TOUR. He followed that outing with by opening in Mexico 70-66 before fading on the weekend. His three best paydays last year were on TPC San Antonio, Quail Hollow and Harbour Town, not exactly pitch-and-putt municipal tracks. He should be closer to +1200 than +700, so I’m wondering why he’s being protected. LET’S GAMBLE. Rob … Jacob Bridgeman (+900) As long as this window opens at the midpoint, I’m gonna give this confident kid a go. The senior at Clemson is only a week removed from taking the title at the ACC Men’s Golf Championship. Four weeks prior, he cruised to victory at the Linger Longer Invite. Before that and in between, he finished third once and fourth twice. He now sits ninth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and second in the Velocity Global Ranking a/k/a PGA TOUR University, but as an insurance policy, he went ahead and prevailed at PGA TOUR Canada’s qualifying event in Alabama in mid-March. To give you an indication of the respect (and fervor) for the 22-year-old, as of Tuesday night, PGA TOUR winners Austin Cook, Nick Watney, Kevin Tway, Camilo Villegas, Chesson Hadley, Jim Herman and Johnson Wagner all are available at the same kickback for a top 20. ROUND 1 LEADER Glass … Denny McCarthy (+8000) Local lad grew up down the street and will be eager to make amends after his MC in 2018. He goes out early enough on the back nine – the easier side – and will have tasty greens in light winds. It was hard to lay down my favorite FRL, Rory McIlroy, but it’s his first ticket to ride here. Remember, go ugly early so you can rebound as the round comes around. Rob … Brian Harman (+6000) Most of the others who have my attention with this bet are in the late draw, so I didn’t waste any time in circling the 2017 champion (albeit at Eagle Point). As Glass intimated, the inward walk of TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm should play about a half-stroke easier than its counterpart; both are par 35s. However, that’s not enough of a split for me to focus only on the guys who start on 10. The little lefty goes out in the second threesome on No. 1, so by the time I’m awake in Arizona, he’ll have signed his card, so I won’t need to wait to pivot, if necessary. He checks all of the boxes required to succeed on this track, and he’s 25th in first-round scoring average on TOUR. MAKE THE CUT Rob … Nate Lashley (-150) He’s mine, and he can be yours, too, for the prime value of 17 coins. Not your typical fountain of FedExCup points but the veteran has cashed in five of his last six starts, all for a top 30. Four were top 20s. Glass … Denny McCarthy (-143) If I’m going to back him to lead Round 1, I would hope he doesn’t fall asleep on Friday. He’s 26th in scoring average and fifth in scrambling, and that will come in handy this week. Plus, he’s the third-richest choice! All about them GOLD COINS. 3-BALL Glass … Matt Fitzpatrick (-118) over Scott Piercy and Charl Schwartzel Fitzpatrick is the favorite here and he should be. Piercy and Schwartzel both have made three cuts on the bounce, but Fitzpatrick’s ability to grind out pars and keep it on the sprinkler line is trumps. Rob … Anirban Lahiri (+116) over Camilo Villegas and Henrik Norlander Although you almost never feel this kickback because it’s worth such a small percentage of total coins accumulated by successful entries, it’s still fun to review the board. This is one of those weeks when Glass and I could have filled a page just with tasty R1 3-balls, and even just the options in the morning wave alone. To keep things fresh, I skipped over my R1 leader, Brian Harman, as well as my R1 3-ball from last week, C.T. Pan – both of whom are in Thursday’s early draw and who I endorse if you’re keen – in favor of the surging Indian. While I file this pick guessing that he’ll have the shortest odds, I’ll be mildly surprised if it’s more impressive relative to others that captured my attention. Lahiri is in my Power Rankings, while the other two are scuffling for different reasons. NOTE: While Glass and Rob typically stick with their selections as detailed in Pick ‘Em Preview, they are allowed the right to make changes at any time.

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How do you spend your Saturday nights? If you’re Maverick McNealy – a 26-year-old Stanford graduate who sits 18th in this season’s FedExCup standings – you might find yourself inventing a training aid. McNealy texted Odyssey rep Joe Toulon on the Saturday prior to the start of the Farmers Insurance Open with an idea. He wanted a training aid for his putter that would help him put his hands on the grip the same way every time. In the latest example of a TOUR pro thinking about the tools in his toolbox in a unique way, McNealy wanted to create a mold of the way he currently holds his putter and have that mold put onto a backup putter to use as a training aid. McNealy is 50th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season, gaining 0.31 strokes per round on the greens. To help bottle the positive feelings he has on the greens, the mold can help his hands return to this baseline if he gets lost. “Everybody has seen those clubs that have, like, the training grip on it that shows you where to put your hands,” Toulon told GolfWRX. “And he had this thought, ‘What if I do that off of my own putter grip and make a grip off that, and every time I’m a little bit lost with my putting or my grip feels like it’s changed a little bit, I know what it needs to feel like?’ He’s obviously putting well right now, so he kind of wants to hang onto that feeling and make sure he knows exactly how things have change. It would act like a guide. It’s a good time to get a baseline.” A brilliant idea, but how do you actually make something like that? The Odyssey team began brainstorming solutions to McNealy’s request, but McNealy had a better answer. His uncle, Bob Randolph, runs a dental office in the San Diego area, and dentists often use molding material to create impressions for teeth. The patient simply bites down on a putty-like material, and it hardens over time to create a mold. Why not use that same material to mold hands on a putter grip? Well, that’s exactly what they did. “It’s actually funny,” McNealy explained at Torrey Pines. “I was wanting a way to grip my putter consistently like a grip trainer, so I was talking to him about that stuff they use for impressions. We wrapped some of that around my putter grip on Monday.” The Odyssey research and development team currently has the mold of McNealy’s hands, and they’re working on a way to scan it and turn it into a putter grip. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take, because we’ve never done anything like that,” Toulon said. “To actually scan it is pretty easy, and then, we’re actually talking about potentially 3D printing the grip. It’s kind of uncharted territory. We’re just learning as we go, but I think it’s something that we can do.” Assuming Odyssey pulls this off and creates the perfect training-aid grip for McNealy, this begs the question going forward: Could anyone mold their hands and have it turned into a putter grip? If so, could average golfers get their hands on the molded grips of top PGA TOUR players to see what it’s like to hold the putter like them? The applications for this type of training aid could be endless. And it’s all thanks to a concept McNealy created while deep in thought on a Saturday night. “Yeah, it’s my first foray into dental molding,” Toulon said. “But McNealy thinks of all that kind of stuff. He likes to tinker. He’s obviously a very bright guy. It’s a Saturday night and he’s thinking of stuff like that. Those are the fun things when you can help bring a brilliant idea like that to life. “It could be something we can use for all the TOUR players. How does Jon Rahm hold the putter? Here’s his grip.” Albeit illegal to use in competition, or during a round of golf, molded grips could potentially be a game-changer for McNealy, and for so many average golfers looking to improve.

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